


Bring Forth the Thunder, Oikawa Tooru

by BACHIRAGF



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Heartwarming, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23316292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BACHIRAGF/pseuds/BACHIRAGF
Summary: Oikawa despises his memories of highschool loss. He yearns for Seijoh’s respect, and for his old teammates and underclassmen to avenge their losses, but even those victories haunt him to Keio.On the field, Oikawa recovers. Soccer is in the only way he knows how to cope. But when Ushijima shows up on Keio’s campus, and he’s suddenly a constant in Tooru’s life, it isn’t so easy to stay calm anymore.
Relationships: Oikawa Tooru/Ushijima Wakatoshi
Kudos: 15





	Bring Forth the Thunder, Oikawa Tooru

Oikawa calls his perfected style a work of art, because really, there is nothing more simultaneously delicate and wild than the way his feet hook into the grass. It brings to mind several different things when Oikawa first takes in the smell of the field. The smell is always different yet still somehow the same—regardless of how many different stadiums and fields Oikawa’s visited, they all have the same exact smell. _Victory_

Sometimes, every now and then, Oikawa smells a challenge in a field, in a game, before it starts. He calls it his “sixth sense,” because in seconds, he heightens his vision like an eagle, bursts into the air like a bullet, surveys the field. Sure, his cleats are still hooked into the ground. His calfs are always tense enough that they seem to be _vibrating_ with tension—it’s a surefire sign that Oikawa’s utmost attention is on the field. 

Oikawa likes being referred to as an Eagle. It’s far off from his old dreams of being an astronaut, from touching the moon, (and maybe being buried there) but it’s close enough for him to boast about it. Oikawa doesn’t, however, enjoy the fact that he shares the title with one other person. 

When Oikawa was nine, he met Ushijima Wakatoshi. 

Right off the bat, Oikawa steered clear of Ushijima. He’d had a whole gaggle of followers in his wake, Iwa-chan beside him, the other girls tripping at his feet. And it had been easy to ignore him too. Ushijima never spoke: he attended school, he answered questions in monotone, and he left hand in hand with his grandmother, who walked him up the mountains and home.

But Ushijima had this cloyingly sweet _smell_ that Oikawa could not ignore, that he’d smelled so many times before—when he and Iwa-chan scored their first goal, when he won that alien from the carnival stall and Iwa-chan chased him with a stag beetle. It made Oikawa want to stay next to him. And in all directions, it raised wild, blaring red alarms that made Oikawa want to curl up and scream. 

Then, Ushijima moved schools. Oikawa never asked where he went. He hardly even _knew_ Ushijima in that sense—Ushiwaka was not Iwa-chan, he didn’t live next door and support Tooru through thick and thin. He was just an enigma Oikawa wanted to uncover and rip apart. 

(That summer, he and Iwa spotted a man by the field near the river. In fluid motions, he flipped backwards and the ball flew between his feet and over the river as if it were a part of his own body. From then, soccer became their _sport_ )

When Oikawa was in Highschool, in his first year as Seijoh’s starting forward, he met Ushijima again. 

Ushijima wore That Uniform. The uniform that bothered Tooru in his dreams every single night. The uniform that Mama showed him three months before graduating from Kitagawa Daiichi, the uniform that belonged to Shiratorizawa, where Tooru’s mama intended for him to attend. But Iwa-chan was going to Seijoh, and Tooru didn’t want to _leave_ Iwa behind, not ever. They were meant to be together, from the day they met in Tooru’s backyard. Where Iwa went, Oikawa followed : and where Oikawa went, Iwa followed. 

_You were meant for Shiratorizawa, Oikawa. Seijoh will only let you down._

Every single year, they played against Shiratorizawa. Every single year, they lost. Every year, Oikawa gave the same speech. 

_You did really well, Yahaba. We just need more practice. We’ll work even harder. And we’ll crush them next time._

This was Oikawa’s sport. It was Oikawa’s turf. This was _his_ field. So how was he so prone to losing, time and time again? How was it, that every time he stepped into the field, the smell of victory always wafted from the red, and never the blue?

(Then, Seijoh’s match against Karasuno, and _Tobio_ who never failed to piss Oikawa off. And they lost, yet again. Oikawa failed again. And again. And again. Until they lost their chances and as much as he tried to replay it, to go back, to restart, he couldn’t.)

(Come graduation, Oikawa set his books on fire with Hanamaki, Matsukawa, and Iwa-chan in his wake. In the distance, the sun began to set. Later, Oikawa asks Iwa-chan if he’ll join him in Keio. When they opened their results together, they both cried. Come autumn, Oikawa and Iwaizumi made sure Keio was an experience they’d never forget.)

Keio was brand new turf for both of them. Iwaizumi studied day and night for his major, because if he didn’t make the team, he’d rather be able to help Oikawa’s reckless demeanor if he became a fitness major—maybe it’d reduce the stress. Oikawa spent almost the entirety of his day at the university’s fields, sometimes alone, sometimes joined by onlookers or a reluctant Iwaizumi. The rest of the day he would spend curled up on the couch, his head ducked under a blanket, surveying his highschool matches against Shiratorizawa, and wondering where he went wrong. 

Iwaizumi knows how Oikawa feels. So on certain rainy days, he joins him. 

(He always ends up sitting under the blankets with him, but he says its only because its too cold in their dorm room. Oikawa swears against it.) 

In the first three months of college, his first three months of joining Keio’s team, Oikawa was dubbed “The Eagle,” by his teammates and Keio’s university paper. 

—————

Soccer is Oikawa’s first priority. Upholding his title as “The Eagle,” is his second. Taking care of his own health is last, but Oikawa trusts Iwa-chan to always find a way to fix him. 

Since both of them swore against using public transport after an Incident in highschool where Oikawa ended up over sixty miles away from the location he was meant to be at, Tooru bikes to his first classes when the sun just about breaks the horizon. 

He majors in aerospace, and while he thoroughly enjoys it, Oikawa knows that soccer is where he’ll truly exceed. The turf is where he lives, the turf is where he’ll stay. Maybe, when he’s world-famous, and rich enough, he’ll buy a portion of the moon so he can be buried there. It’s a far-fetched dream. But it might happen. Oikawa pushes on that might like its law. 

In moments when the stress of university _really_ affects him, when he wanted to let loose and Iwa-chan wasn’t there to curl up on the couch with him, Oikawa took hour-long walks with his ball tucked in his bag in case he encountered a strike of energy. 

Today, Oikawa head out at sunset. Iwa-chan was at work, and Miyamura—Oikawa’s teammate who he spent a surprisingly significant amount of time with—was out with his girlfriend. Oikawa was company-less and thought-less and emotion-less and that was how he reduced his stress on days like this. 

The campus gardens were a Heaven on Earth. When the sunlight hit the petals just right, they erupted with vivid mimicry of Birds of Paradise, their colors fusing in a way that confused his eyes yet pleased them. The sun reflected on the windows of the campus buildings and pulled the gray sealing away with its bright rays of yellow and gold. In the distance, Oikawa saw a head of dark hair and a maroon tracksuit that made his stomach roll in ways he didn’t like. 

_There isn’t a chance that Ushiwaka‘s here, Tooru. Get your shit together and walk. You’re de-stressing. Take it easy._

But the dark haired figure was coming towards him, on a bike, nonetheless, so even if Oikawa turned to run, he wouldn’t make it. 

(Oikawa was also an idiot. So as soon as Not-Ushiwaka opened his mouth, Tooru turned and ran.)

When Oikawa reached the door of his dorm and burst inside, Iwa-chan looked up. 

“Jesus, Tooru. What the fuck happened to you?”

Oikawa held the door frame and glanced into the hallway. Down multiple rooms, the sound of footsteps up the staircase echoed across the walls. _Ushiwaka. His dorm is in this building. Fuck._

“Ushijima happened to me.” Oikawa said, shutting the door quickly behind him and setting his bag down on the ground. “Ushijima Wakatoshi. That big gorilla oaf. Yep. Him.” 

Iwaizumi sighed and held out a piece of his granola bar for Tooru to break off. “You know he isn’t even that bad right? We met up before at a University gathering for Bio majors. Yaku invited me.”

“It’s not that he’s bad or anything, Hajime.” Oikawa replied. “It’s the shame. The _shame_ , Hajime. The fact that he won against me three years in a row and I couldn’t do shit to stop him.”

 _”Wakatoshi! Where were you, man? You missed the beer!”_

A muffled voice replied before instantaneous laughter erupted from Ushijima presumed roommate. Or freeloaders. Definitely not friends. There was no way Ushiwaka had friends. 

Iwaizumi fell quiet and threw Tooru an incredulous look. “You didn’t tell me he was living right _across_ from us, Tooru!” he hissed, stumbling to his feet and opening the door. “He might’ve heard us!”

“Yeah, well I didn’t know either. You think I’m happy about this in any way?”

Iwaizumi sat back down on the bottom bunk of his bed and dribbled Tooru’s ball between his feet. In a sudden motion, he rapped a sharp heel kick at the ball, sending it in a straight line across the room and into their bathroom. The cable for his phone clattered to the floor.

“ _God._ What did I do to deserve this?” Oikawa groans, lying spread eagled on the floor. “I was just taking a walk!”

“Like I said. Ushijima isn’t bad. Maybe you should try and get to know him.” He shrugged and got back to work on finishing his granola bar.

“You suck Hajime. You seriously do. I hope you never find a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. I hope you die an old man.” 

Iwaizumi grinned and threw up on of Tooru’s signature peace signs. “At least i’ll be a hunk. I know you’ll die a crooked, hunch-backed old man like Uncle Yuto.” 

“I can see it now,” Tooru continued, ignoring him. “Iwaizumi Hajime—renowned scientist, bisexual icon, dies a single, old man with no goals or achievments..”

“You’re a jackass, Tooru.” Iwaizumi replied, hurling his granola bar at Oikawa. Oikawa dodged and shrieked at the top of his lungs, dissolving into laughter as they both collapsed in a heap on the floor. 

“I needed that.” Tooru said, curling his fingers and digging them into his palm. “Sometimes I feel like a failure. But you always bring me up, Iwa-chan.”

“It’s what I do best, dumbass. You’ll never be a failure. You never have, you never will.”

_Seijoh will only drag you down._

_You drag Seijoh down like a weight, Oikawa. It’s all about you and no one else. All about you. All about Shiratorizawa and proving the world wrong. What about your future? What about your goals? What are you gonna do when you have to work for yourself? What then, Captain?_


End file.
